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September, 19W. 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR. 

BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 



AKSWERS TO OBJECTIONS TO THE KINDERGARTEN. 

(Prepnred in the Kindergarten Division, Bureau of Education, in cooperation with the International 

Kindergarten Union.) 

Note. — The objections quoted here have been urged against the kindergarten 
from time to time, chiefly by persons who have no clear conception of the place which 
the kindergarten holds to-day in relation to education, or whose opinions are largely 
the result of prejudice and second-hand judgment, and not of intelligent and personal 
observation of this form of child training. 

1. " Many 'primary teachers say that kindergarten children are hard 
to manage; they prefer to receive children fresh from home. 71 

Answer. To say that many primary teachers find kindergarten 
children "hard to manage " and that they prefer children without 
kindergarten training would indicate that primary teachers are 
interested chiefly in the management of children rather than in their 
development, which should not be true. A teacher who depends 
for the establishment of formal discipline on the sense of awe and 
separation which characterizes children fresh from home will naturally 
have little sympathy with the child from the kindergarten, nor will 
her criticism have much weight with any intelligent student offchild- 
hood or education, since it discloses a weakness not in the system 
but in her. The primary teacher who does not want kindergarten 
children is the one who fails to understand and practice the prin- 
ciple of self-activity in education. If she confounds order with 
passivity and self-expression with license, she will have difficulty 
with children from the best kindergartens. 

In some instances the criticism is due to inadequate kindergarten 
practice. There may be kindergartners who do not represent the 
ideal, as there are teachers in all grades who fall below the best 
educational standards. When the kindergartner has the wrong 
conception of freedom, permitting the formation of habits of diso- 
bedience to definite commands, of discourtesy and excitability, 
kindergarten children are harder to "manage." 

58978°-lS --*-/ 2— 



2 ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS TO THE KINDERGARTEN. 

The kindergarten child who has received from his kindergarten 
training what it is designed to give him and what in the vast majority 
of cases he does get, goes into the primary room with senses keen 
and alert, skill of eye and hand, power of attention, habit of obedi- 
ence, and ability and practice in self-expression. That he will 
demand more of his teacher because of all this is a foregone con- 
clusion; but if her aim is that of modern education, she will rejoice 
in what he has gained through his kindergarten experience. 

Modern psychology and hygiene agree in emphasizing the impor- 
tance of freedom of thought and action at the kindergarten age. 

2. " Children do not learn anything in Jcindergarten; it is a waste of 
time; they do nothing but play." 

Answer. The testimony of primary teachers and supervising 
officers gives specific denial to this statement. Experiments and 
tests carried on in several cities tend to show conclusively that the 
kindergarten child has the advantage over the nonkindergarten 
child in definite information about nature, human activities, and 
number facts, as well as in power to attend, to recollect, and to react 
quickly and accurately to a given situation. The extent of this 
training is obscured by the failure of the primary school to make 
definite use of it. This is due in part to the lack of any real coordina- 
tion between the two departments and in part to the fact that in 
many school systems the kindergarten children form a minority of 
those in the first grade. 

There are still many persons who limit all learning to the knowl- 
edge acquired from the printed page. They fail to understand 
that ideas are necessary in order to interpret the printed page. 
Ideas are gained through the senses, our first teachers. The open 
eye, the listening ear, the awakened mind are the results of the rich 
and varied experiences of the kindergarten. The technique of 
reading and writing, which belongs to a later stage of development, 
is of small value without the informing mind. 

That all learning in the kindergarten starts with play is the basic 
principle of its founder. Play is the dominant instinct during the 
years of early childhood. Time spent in the development of that 
activity which is natural to any given period can not be characterized 
as wasted, since one period forms the basis of development for 
the next period. The child who plays vigorously, whole-heartedly, 
becomes the man who works vigorously, whole-heartedly. There- 
fore, it may be said with all possible emphasis that children do play 
in kindergarten because they should play; that it is not a waste of 
time, because it is play directed along fines that help to form in the 
child's mind interest in and right attitudes toward the experiences 
of fife which he meets. 



D. of 3* 



ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS TO THE KINDERGARTEN. 3 

The modern school, realizing the educative value of play, is utilizing 
it more and more in the form of " organized games, toy making, or 
other construction based on play motives as part of the regular 
curriculum." 

3. "The kindergarten makes children nervous; they want to be doing 
something different all the time, or else be entertained" 

Answer : If such conditions result from kindergarten training they 
should be charged to special cases, or to the individual teacher, and 
not to the system. Should the kindergarten prove overstimulating 
or exhausting to a child a physician's advice should be sought in his 
particular case. The good kindergarten controls and directs nerve 
energy. One of its aims is the gradual gain of power of application. 
Through the happy cooperation of hand and mind it tends to form 
habits of attention and concentration. 

The kindergarten in which the teacher does not dominate, in 
which the children make many of their own problems, and are 
allowed freedom in their solution, in which initiative and self-reliance 
are developed, will be free from the dangers of individual capricious- 
ness, and the children will acquire ability to amuse themselves, skill 
in handling material, and a power of self-control which prevents 
nervousness and peevishness. 

4. " At 4 or 5 years of age children should be nothing but healthy 
little animals; it is time enough to chain them to desks and books when 
they are 6, or better stiU, 7, years old." 

Answer: The child who is only an animal at the age of 4 or 5 
does not give good promise of a man made in the image of God. 
At no period of a child's life is he " nothing but a healthy little 
animal." In considering what should be done with him at any 
period it is quite as important to recognize his ultimate destiny as 
it is to consider his animal heredity. One can be overstrained quite 
as much as the other; the kindergarten holds that balanced view 
which gives due attention to the demands of his physical needs with- 
out ignoring the hints of a higher life which he in his spontaneous 
activity. The kindergarten agrees wholly with the view that chil- 
dren should not be chained to desks and books at 6 years of age. 
Not only does it permit great freedom of movement in its own sphere, 
using neither desks nor books, but its example and spirit are devel- 
oping freedom from cramping desks in primary rooms everywhere. 

5. " The kindergarten is an indoor institution in spite of its name; I 
want my children to be out of doors as much as possible." 

Answer: The name kindergarten is misunderstood by many to 
mean an actual garden where children play. What the name really 
means is a place where children receive care suited to their nature, 
as a good gardener gives care to plants. It is not a garden for chil- 
dren, but a garden of children. Its name does not necessarily imply 



ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS TO THE KIN 



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outdoor existence. Nevertheless, Froebel recognized, as do his fol- 
lowers, that a maximum of out-door life is important for little chil- 
dren and that real contact with plants and animals, such as is only 
possible out of doors, is a vital element in child life. Kindergartners 
everywhere strive, in spite of the difficulties of climate and popular 
objections to exposure, to have their children out of doors a great 
deal. An increasing number of kindergartners each year are en- 
deavoring to stimulate this life by adding playground apparatus, by 
excursions, and by holding many kindergarten activities in the open 
air whenever weather conditions permit. 

6. " H is all very well for l slum' children, hut where a child has a 
good home and wholesome surroundings he does not need to he sent to 
school hefore primary age." 

Answer: Children are children wherever they are. There are 
homes in which the conditions are so ideal that kindergarten is not 
essential; but these homes are rare, even among the well-to-do. 
Every child needs social contact with other children of the same age 
as a means of developing social qualities, sociability, self-control, 
cooperation, and a measure of self-sacrifice. "The best preparation 
for working together is playing together, and we must at all periods 
live together," is an excellent statement of the needs of all children 
for the contact with other children on a plane of equality of interests 
and experiences which a kindergarten gives. * 

The guidance of a trained teacher, the presentation of educative 
materials according to an organized and developing plan, the stimu- 
lation of other individuals leading to healthy emulation; all these 
are elements not present in the majority of homes. Moreover, the 
best kindergarten conditions are hygienically better — with larger 
rooms, better ventilation, and greater opportunity for large, vigor- 
ous movements. 



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